How The Most Important Lesson I Ever Learned Was To Quit

For me, it started out as a joke. My significant other made me a deal. He would treat me to a full celebration (dinner, drinks, friends, and whatever else I could possibly want) if and only if I could quit my job.

It started out as a joke…

The rules were simple. I had to genuinely quit. I wasn’t allowed to get fired or just walk out the door. I had to go up to the owners office, walk in, remind him that I work for him still and then let him know I wouldn’t work for him ever again.

In my first two weeks with this company, six new employees had been hired and eight had been let go. The turn over rate was phenomenal! Working there instilled a do-or-die sense of survival. Every day, the question was more about whether I could make the cut and less about what it was I could do to advance with the business I was working for.

I was delusional at the idea that I could make a valid contribution to this company. At the time, I didn’t realize I was moving through a grieving process. My deniability quickly moved into a sense of bargaining that at least I was being paid for just sitting there, running a very unsuccessful storefront where the only walk-ins we ever had just wanted directions to someplace else. That was depressing!

It was when I delivered a master near-30 page marketing plan and confidently sat down to discuss how to take the business to a whole new level that I knew I was going to quit this job.